Seriously though, I'm always really excited thinking about technology like this but then I think of the mental stability of some gamers and how strong the human brain. When that zombie looks like it's chewing on you, your mind might tell you it's actually happening... Games like that would have to condition the players to know 100% that it's all fake, and even then the less stable players would still have problems in and out of the virtual world. IDK just my two cents.

It's like crossing an intersection. There's shit going on all over the place and you don't panic and act like an idiot then do you?

If I remember correctly, back in the LN for SAO they mentioned that the first kind of VR was this exact kind where you were limited by space. Thus, the games were really confined to a select few.

True VR as most people (myself included) would love to see, would have to have a way to completely shut out the motor functions that the brain sends out; otherwise we will be limited to small scale games or requiring some type of treadmill like machine.

For the most part this excites me, it means that technology is progressing and maybe in 10 years or so I can finally enter a VRMMO and fly or get to fully experience an epic boss battle of some sort.

People are lazy as crap. Games where you have to move your whole body like that, even if you do have some sort of multidirectional treadmill, wouldn't go far, because people would get tired of running around. Sure they do it in Wii and other games, but those are more casual things, and casual gamers aren't going to buy a treadmill for their game room.

Nah, that won't ever be popular. It'd be fun, but it won't last. The VR that'll really kick off is that when we can play it with just our minds.

The problem with the internet is parallel to its greatest achievement: it has given the little man an outlet where he can be heard. Most of the time however, the little man is a little man because he is not worth hearing.
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This isn't viable as it's presented in the video. If this ever comes out on the market it will be fitted with some type of sensor that can intercept and convert brain signals to movement inside the VR. Though I believe this would incapacitate your physical body as commands would have to be intercepted to achieve "No movement-movement" inside the game.

That could of course be dangerous if you can't regain control of your body without assistance or turn the device off from the "inside".

Also: What happens if your character falls down while you are standing up? Would you have to lay down IRL and then rise up to properly simulate a person rising up? Would feel kinda corny..

I can see an omni-directional treadmill being effective.. However how would you again play a game like Skyrim with the Whirlwind sprint, or any game like Gears of war where it goes from breakneck sprint to dead stop in a second or less? I'm not being too cynical I hope of the future of gaming, I would just like to make sure that things are played out correctly versus things having a very bad first review and then limiting how people perceive future VR games.

I HOPE they make it real, I just hope they do it correctly. Take 50 years for all I care, just do it right the first time.

And there's no way I could play games like that for hours on end, I'd be so exhausted -_- Though it would help me get in shape!

That's exactly the point. We'd be able to work out AND play games at the same time - something that many of us can only dream of doing lol.

As of right now, I play my console games while on an elliptical. This not only helps me get in shape, but also limits how much time I spend in front of the TV. Of course the computer is a different story :-) But if I could have some sort of omni-tread to set up in front of my comp and play games like that, I'd be ALL THE FUCK OVER IT. That would be so freaking amazing.

Originally Posted by Warwithin

Politicians put their hand on the BIBLE and swore to uphold the CONSTITUTION. They did not put their hand on the CONSTITUTION and swear to uphold the BIBLE.

Originally Posted by Adam Jensen

Except maybe Morgan Freeman. That man could convince God to be an atheist with that voice of his . . .

I think that one extra step beyond this, something similar to the NerveGear, or basically a device that intercepts brain signals, is what's truly exciting for me, although the possibilities of such technologies are frighteningly(?) far reaching.

Originally Posted by Bovinity Divinity

Then the [MMORPG] genre started attracting more players. These players wanted more of a "game" and less of a "world" [...]

Seriously though, I'm always really excited thinking about technology like this but then I think of the mental stability of some gamers and how strong the human brain. When that zombie looks like it's chewing on you, your mind might tell you it's actually happening... Games like that would have to condition the players to know 100% that it's all fake, and even then the less stable players would still have problems in and out of the virtual world. IDK just my two cents.

I hadn't thought about it before, but you're absolutely right. It would be similar to dying in a dream, your mind believes this stuff is actually happening, and it could lead to some fairly fatal conclusions. I suppose it wouldn't be as frequent (Some people have trouble in dreams remembering it's fake, compared to starting a game knowing it's fake), but it would still be very possible.

Skyward Sword alone was really fun just waving one arm around. Tiring as it may be for a while, Skelington can't wait to have fully motion controlled VR games before an actual nervegear to live inside.

Yeah, sadly the most appealing virtual reality solution is also the most dangerous one. I just really want to play Shadow of the Colossus or Total War games in virtual reality. Would be so damn amazing.

Wtb real-life Matrix. Would plug myself to it instantly to live inside a fantasy game.

Heh, risk vs reward, as we often say in video-games... ultimate risk comes with ultimate reward.

It's just amazing trying to wrap my mind around that concept.

The unbridled power of human ingenuity and imagination, infinitely empowered by virtual reality technology.

It's an unbelievably tempting thought. If you ever had a vivid dream that had connections to a video game you play, it's slightly easier to appreciate what this means.

Right now though, we're still limited to stuff like the above, which is a stepping stone really. I'm not even sure if it's possible at all to reach that kind of true, total and complete virtual reality. Still, it sounds plausible.

We've done incredible things so far(splitting the atom, travelling in space, unlocking the DNA, the Internet, antibiotics, soaring through the skies in metal aircraft, computers and much much more), things that our ancestors would never dare dream of, let alone believe. Yet here we are, chatting together on our computers through the global network, taking these marvels for granted.

VR is one more that's on the list.

---------- Post added 2012-10-08 at 11:20 PM ----------

Hell, now that I think of it, VR in the far future could present a way for humanity's survival.

What's easier to sustain?

A population in stasis, carefully monitored and physically maintained, while connected to a vast virtual reality world. Consume all you want, you can have everything, anything, there's more than enough for everyone. No hunger, poverty or suffering. Maybe we'd go completely nuts though, it's not that simple...

I'd like to try it on anything that's not an RPG, would rather not walk in place for thousands of miles. I'll probably be dead before something like this is available for homes though. There's still a lot of things to perfect, and a lot of things to make it "idiot proof".

I was researching the net to see if other groups made advances in our domain and found this thread instead, thought I'd share a bit of info on what today's technology can do. Also we're just a small-time group, who knows how far the big shots has gotten with this.

Well it's actually been my dream to see this happen ever since i was a kid. I don't think I got the idea from anything in particular, maybe something to do with entering the dreamland whenever I wanted like a video-game. I've dedicated my life for this to try and make it happen. I currently hold a bachelor in electrical engineering and a master's in both biomedical engineering and neurobiology. I'm planning to get my PhD in neurobiology by the end of 2013.

I started my small research group 2 years ago and our goal is to create a device and/or system that completely intercepts the signals being sent to and from the brain to allow a computer of some sorts to receive and send signals to the brain. Essentially, this will allow computer scientists to emulate a true virtual environment, maybe even more real than reality. Things like "accelerated virtual reality" will probably be the best outcome of this research, meaning the time you spent in the virtual reality is actually less than what your body spent in the real world. The PhD I'm working on is to try and measure the human brain's actually processing powers to see how much faster a virtual reality can be. So far I'm seeing numbers as big as 1000x or even 10000x faster, but I haven't started to look at what effects this might have on the brain itself.

And one last thing, we're going the surgical way, meaning like matrix. I don't personally know anyone with a master's or doctorate in radiology other than the university's professor that's too narcissistic to talk to anyone... But my guess is that the technology to pin-point radioactive energy to a molecular level to intercept the brain signals isn't a technology we'll be seeing anytime soon, meaning the "NerveGear" most likely isn't something that will happen in our lifetime. Although our group just started recently, we were able to surgically implant interceptors in a mouse. The mouse is perfectly fine unplugged and gets completely paralyzed when plugged, since his brain signals are being sent through the device and not the body. The mouse is perfectly fine again when unplugged. Our current stage is to try and create a way to properly read these signals and convert them binary strings that a computer can read. So far it isn't going to well, we aren't even sure if the device is sending the proper signals or simply interrupting the brain signals. But it is without a doubt that our goal is completely achievable.